Overview of the 2020 Information and Communications
White Paper
Economic Research Office, ICT Strategy Policy Division,
Information and Communications Bureau,
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
1. Introduction
The first part of the 2020 Information and Communications
White Paper has adopted the special theme, “DigitalTransformation and New Lifestyles Promoted by 5G,” looking
at two issues: 5th generation mobile communication systems(5G), which began commercial services in Japan in 2020, andthe global spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It
summarizes current conditions, how they have affected society,the economy, and the digital revolution in Japan, and the outlook
for Japanese society into the 2030s. The second part of the white
paper provides the latest data indicating the state of informationand communications in Japan and discusses policy trends, mainly
related to initiatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications (MIC). This article gives an overview of theFirst part of the white paper.

2. 5G: Infrastructure for the New Era (ReiwaEra)(1) Evolution of mobile communication systems
Since the 1st Generation mobile communication system (1G)
was introduced in Japan in 1979, performance improved with eachsuccessive generation approximately every ten years, and it has
now grown to be essential infrastructure for everyday life and forcorporate economic activity. Now, commercial 5G services began
in Japan in 2020, and it is expected to have even more impact
on society than before, being implemented as infrastructure
for the IoT era in various fields and industries. This is because,in addition to enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), which

increases the speed and capacity of earlier mobile communication
systems, it can also fulfill requirements for Ultra-Reliable Low
Latency Communications (URLLC) and massive Machine Type
Communication (mMTC). These are expected to be used as
infrastructure, creating new value by improving efficiency andconvenience in industry and society.
With the appearance of 5G, mobile communications systems
are evolving further, from lifestyle infrastructure to industrial andsocietal infrastructure, and we expect it to contribute to economic
growth and finding solutions to societal issues in Japan.
(2) 5G Trends in various countries
5G commercial services were started earlier in the USA,Europe, China, and South Korea than in Japan. After threecarriers in South Korea simultaneously initiated mobile 5G
services for smartphones on April 3, 2019, Verizon started amobile 5G service in the USA. China started their service inNovember, 2019, approximately one year earlier than originallyplanned, and 11 countries in Europe had started commercial 5G
services as of March, 2020.
On April 10, 2019 in Japan, the MIC approved plans by NTT
DOCOMO, KDDI/Okinawa Cellular, SoftBank, and Rakuten
Mobile, to deploy specified base stations, and commercial services
started in March, 2020.
As described in detail in Section 4 of Chapter 2 of the whitepaper, Japan has created a “Local 5G” system, separate from thenation-wide services provided by mobile phone operators. The
system provides flexibility for various entities to build mobile■ Figure 1: Life before COVID-19 and with COVID-19

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communication systems that can be used to meet the needs ofindividual regions or industries, and currently various development
demonstration tests are in progress. Similar systems are also being
implemented in Germany and the UK.
(3) Structural changes in the telecommunications market
As commercial 5G services have started and with the spread ofIoT and AI technologies, the number of IoT devices in the worldis expected to increase dramatically, particularly in industrial
applications and consumer information appliances. On theother hand, according to the GSM Association (GSMA), an
industry association of mobile phone operators from various
countries, 5G lines will make up only 20% of all mobile lines by
the year 2025. Although the ratio will exceed 30%, particularlyin North America, Greater China, and Europe, it is expected
to remain in the single digits or teens in other regions. This isbecause the higher frequency bands used by 5G require morebase stations than 4G, to cover an equivalent area. Although thetelecommunications operators in Japan share their networks, itwill take time to expand the 5G area, so building up the market is
expected to proceed at a relatively leisurely pace.
In the past ten years, companies in South Korea andChina have greatly expanded their shares of the global mobile
phone devices market, and there have been great changes inthe structure of the ICT industry ecosystem in Japan, as theGAFA companies and other platform providers have joined theconventional telecommunications operators. These changes in thestructure of ICT industries may continue in the future, with theimplementation of 5G in various industries and fields.

3. Digitalization of all of society prompted by5G
(1) I CT as a means to solve issues and initiatives anticipating
the 2020s
Japan is known as one of the leading nations on issues, andalso leads in population decrease and aging, so for some time,
there has been a need to actively introduce and use ICT toimprove quality of life and employment, and to increase work
productivity. Regional governments have had various initiatives
using ICT to find solutions to societal issues, and the white paper
introduces several cases including a “workation” initiative in
Nagano Prefecture, an e-sports initiative in Arima Onsen, andan initiative to introduce a residents’ collaboration application in
Chiba City.
Among digitalization initiatives being conducted with an eye
to completion in 2020, new technologies are being introduced
such as cashless transactions, multilingual translation, and facialrecognition, and there are measures to reform work styles withtelework, and to reduce and prevent disaster.
As for cashless transactions, Japan has not made progressbecause of the convenience and reliability of cash, but prompted bycashless point-return programs and measures against COVID-19,
settlement using QR codes or barcodes has become morecommon, particularly on smartphones. With this development,
JPQR, which is a standard integrating both QR codes andbarcodes, is also being introduced. High quality translation isalso becoming possible with improvements in AI deep-learningtechnology, so multilingual translation is also becoming practical.

■ Figure 2: Ecosystem transitions in Japan’s mobile industry

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■ Figure 3: M ultilingual translation used by local fire department(2) Migration of industry to wireless, driven by 5G
In the future, 5G will be implemented as infrastructure forindustry and society in Japan in various industries and fields. It isexpected to improve business efficiency and creating new added
value by contributing to solving issues in these industries andfields.
According to a survey conducted by the MIC in 2020, before
commercial 5G services commenced, corporate interest in 5G
is high in all fields, particularly in manufacturing, and large
enterprises have more interest than medium and small enterprise.
Individual users are looking forward to higher communication

speeds, but there is concern that fees will
increase, so it will be important to eliminate
these concerns and to provide enticing services
and applications, in order to spread 5G toordinary users in the future.

(3) Effects on society of the spread of
COVID-19
The global spread of COVID-19 has hadhuge effects on the flow of information andthe digital economy in Japan, and is requiringtransition to new ways of life in all kinds ofscenarios. In such conditions, initiatives suchas actively distributing accurate information toprevent the spread of infection, and introducing
ICT to ensure social distancing, including
data analysis and utilization, are increasinglyimportant.
In the short term, various initiatives areexpanding, such as visualization of humancontact risk through collaboration among
administration, civic tech and private
enterprise; telework in enterprise; introductionof remote lectures in schools; and relaxation of requirements onremote medicine for special cases and limited times. However,various other issues are also materializing due to the sudden
increase in ICT use. Many issues are not new, such as increasing
traffic, insufficient measures against security risk, the need toreview business details such as moving to paperless workflows anddigital contracts; and finding balance between public health andutilization of personal data, but this “COVID-19 Era” requires
introduction of irreversible new ways of life at all levels: personal,industrial, and societal; and these issues must absolutely be dealtwith.

■ Figure 4: Enterprise interest in 5G

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4. Data flow in the 5G era and security(1) Current state and issues with utilization of digital data
The spread of IoT devices and the increase in the amount ofvideo and other content, mainly because of the proliferation ofsmartphones has increased the flow of data in recent years, andthis is expected to accelerate and become more important as 5G
spreads, particularly with applications in industry.
Currently in Japan, the proportion of all data used byenterprise for analysis that is obtained from IoT devices is growing
quickly, at four to seven times that of 2015 levels, but this is still
low compared with use of digital data by enterprises in the USAand Germany.
The amount of data crossing national borders is also increasing
because it is becoming normal for enterprises to act globally,■ Figure 5: E nterprise utilization of digital data

and to provide services in other countries through the Internet.
According to the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO),
a total of 1,608 Gigabits crossed the Japanese border every secondin 2001, and this had increased by 165 times, to 265,000 Gigabits
in 2016.
With this increase in cross-border data, the flow of personal
data has also increased, and according to a survey conducted by
the MIC in 2020, approximately 20% of enterprises in Japantransfer personal data across borders. This figure is approximately
40% in the USA, and up to 50% in Germany. The white paper
introduces several concrete examples of how data is being utilized
by enterprises in Japan.
(2) Use of personal data in the future
As is shown by the growth of digital platform providers,
this growth in digital data is a promising new source of value.
However, concern among consumers in Japan regarding use ofpersonal data has increased, and enterprises have not exploited it
to the extent they have in some other countries. More recently,compared with the results of a survey conducted in 2017, thistrend has decreased slightly, possibly due to authorization of socalled personal data trust banks and the appearance of Personal
Data Store (PDS) services. For example, regarding their intension
to use services such as a personal data trust bank, the proportionof consumers responding that they would like to use one has
increased compared to 2017, and this is similar to other countries.
However, concern regarding information leaks remains
high relative to other countries, and the use of anonymized■ Figure 6: Consumer intention to utilize personal data trust banks or personal data stores

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data is expected to expand utilization of personal data in Japan.
Anonymized data is data that has been processed so that specificindividuals cannot be identified and the original data cannot berecovered, providing a safe and secure way to use personal data.
(3) Cyber security in the 5G eraWith increasing activity utilizing data, society as a wholeis becoming much more digitized, and it is becoming more
important to deal with cyber-security risk. “Ten Information
Security Threats in 2020,” from the Information-Technology
Promotion Agency (IPA) stated that the number-one threat toindividuals is smartphone settlement fraud, suggesting that cyberattacks on smartphones are also increasing.
With the introduction of 5G services, installation andoperation of IoT devices for industrial applications will
also increase, and the potential for industrial equipment andinfrastructure that was previously isolated from the Internet tobe connected will increase. It has been pointed out that security
measures for these sorts of cases will be much more important inthe future. Security risks related to use of IoT devices have often
been overlooked, but it will be even more important to foster
awareness of security issues with IoT users in the future.

5. Beyond 5G
The fourth chapter discusses the prospects for society in Japanin the 2030s, in light of innovations such as 5G, IoT and AI, andintroduces domestic and international trends surrounding “Beyond
5G,” which will be needed to realize such a society.
With the implementation of 5G in society, exchange of data
between physical space and cyber space will take place faster, at
higher-volume, and with less delay. This will lead to realizationof cyber-physical systems (CPS) that further integrate these two
spaces in the 2030s, and will help realize a vigorous and resilient
society where cyber space can enable economic activity and thelives of citizens to continue smoothly, even when new contagions
or disasters occur in physical space.
To realize the extremely high level of synchronization required
for such CPSs in the 2030s, communications infrastructure thatis faster than 5G and able to deliver large amounts of data, safely,reliably and without delay to anywhere, will be needed.
Initiatives for the successor of 5G, or “Beyond 5G,” arealready in progress in advanced countries. Japan also created a“Beyond 5G Promotion Strategy” in June, 2020, as a strategic
initiative to bring people and government together based oninternational collaboration. To ensure Japan’s competitiveness inthe future, we will take our strengths and focus on reinforcing
our R&D capabilities on technologies with which we are alreadyactively engaged, such as tera-hertz waves, all-photonic networks,
quantum cryptography, sensing, and low-power consumption
semiconductors.

■ Figure 7: B eyond 5G Promotion Strategy — Basic Principles —New Breeze Winter 2021

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